#using the environment to create something different

[seaoreos]

Hey, you!

Do you enjoy clangen? Are you autistic about genetics, evolution, and adaptations?

Do you also maybe want to start one of those clangen blogs or comics, or something like them?

Then I have the game for you! That’s right, baby. This is a Niche: a genetics survival game recruitment post.

I have been DEEPLY autistic about this game for years, so now you have to be too. I have over 200 hours in it.

It’s almost like a hybrid of spore and clangen- you breed and evolve your group of creatures (nichelings), explore different environments and adaptations, endure different kinds of weather, gather or hunt for food, and fend off predators.

It has both more and less control than clangen does, especially if you want to write a story based off of your playthrough.

It has more control over your individual creatures actions, relationships, genetics, appearance and breeding.

It has less control over your environment, predators and weather, but that depends on how much you mess with the sandbox settings.

There’s also a ‘mutation menu’ so you can make a specific creature’s offspring more likely to mutate certain genetic traits. You can start with all of them unlocked, or progressively unlock them as you go along.

(And there’s a huge family tree as well, to keep track of your creatures relations.)

The sandbox settings give you control over:

-What does or doesn’t spawn, from predators and other animals, to rocks and grass

-damage and healing multipliers

-the genes and appearance of the creatures you start with. Hand-pick every one, or have them as many as you like set to random!

-the island you start on, from grasslands, to swamps, savannas, mountains and archipelagos, to a little bit of everything, or even on the back of a giant whale!

-how many days your creatures different life stages last, for how long they’re helpless babies, teens, or adults. You can make your creatures live for just a few days, or hundreds.

-you can set ‘win conditions’ for challenges,

-and turn on a blind gene mode where you cannot see individual creatures genetics.

-a tribe size limit, so you can only have so many creatures

-and how much food and nesting material you start with as well!

The creatures are mostly dog-like, but there are cat features you can exclusively/mostly use as well. (Which is called ‘purr snout’, and when a creature purrs, any other creatures directly next to them will heal from any damage they have over the next few days. It’s fucking awesome)

Or, you can just creatively interpret their in-game designs however you like!

They have a lot of varying features- here’s some of my favorite nichelings from my own games.

The game has its own randomly-assigned names, but you can change them at any time. 

(And you can also change the color of the gems on their chest as well, which represent how many ‘moves’ each creature has left.)

You control every one of your nichelings, so you can creatively interpret and create their personalities and relationships as much as you like, but random things still happen throughout the world as well.

There’s also a main ‘story mode’ aside from the sandbox, which is pretty fun too. (And also acts as a comprehensive tutorial.)

The game is 18 dollars on steam, but it’s been around for awhile, so it probably goes on sale often enough? I have no idea. I could run it without issues on my shitty old laptop, even in the poor thing’s final years, so you don’t need a really good computer to play it.

If you want to watch someone play it first, I highly recommend ’Seri! Pixel biologist!’. She has done a BUNCH of different playthoughts and challenges, from when the game was in super early access all the way up until its full release, and afterwards. 

She also loves warrior cats, and builds a lot of story into her games. Here’s the playlist for her story mode play-through!

Also, if anyone does start a niche-based comic or something. PLEAAASE tell me I wanna seee it!!!!! :o)) thank you for your time goodbye

[thatstormygeek]

This is where MAGA has succeeded, in allowing reality and history to disappear in the face of glorious denial. And it is an awful road with awful consequences. What we must do is pay attention and remember. Every day, especially in circumstances like this mayoral election, we are given glimpses into the true nature of power. Giving a creep like Cuomo your support, whether you’re a politician, a pundit, or a personality, tells us exactly who you are, as does clicking your heels and getting in line with Trump because of an illegal war your diseased warhawk heart has always desired. Here, the truth is revealed: these people are not your allies, their “principles” were never real, and, for all of the continued insistence, they do not value the things they purport to.

Former president Bill Clinton, who has been haunted by allegations since he was the governor of Arkansas, decided it was necessary to endorse Cuomo and has been campaigning for him in the final days. Perhaps no one has benefited from cultural and political amnesia than Clinton, so it should tell you everything you need to know that he’s willing to be seen standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Cuomo. Mamdani, after all, represents a total existential crisis to the Democratic Party. If he were to win…god forbid!…it would mean the ascendance of a differently-minded Democrat to a place of power. And then, can you even imagine? The party might have to actually acknowledge that their base and the American public in general wants something beyond the tried and failed Neoliberal centrism that the party has offered and been rejected because of. But it’s not just Clinton. We’ve seen Libs of TikTok sound the alarm regarding Mamdani. George Santos took some time between corruption trials to signal his support. Mamdani and his gasp desire to maybe create better public transit is such a giant threat that it’s bringing together foes from across the aisle! And what does this tell us? Simply that, in a time of rising authoritarianism, what matters most is not the relentless assault on our rights, protections, and liberties, but that no one, no matter what, is allowed to gain power if they are so much to the left of Ro Khanna. A simple victory, just one isolated victory, means the difference between continuing the same failed political project and having to deal with the possibility that some things might have to change. This is the secret of politics: all of the fighting, all of the brawling, and all of the pleasant sounding rhetoric and strongly-worded letters hides the fact that there is a political class dedicated to the wealth class and that is driving impulse behind all of this. As I’ve discussed, there has been too much money and too much violence spent on dismantling even a semblance of a “Left” around the world to allow it to have a breath or even inkling of hope. This tireless snuffing out of Leftists or reformers, which has taken the form of coups and ethnic cleansing and assassination, was about creating an environment in which there was no organized voice against the continued consolidation of wealth and power. There could be simulations of “leftist” ideas. You could have liberal party that offered little besides means-testing and targeted assistance, all the while eschewing any necessary reform or progress, but to give actual voice to what the people want is much too dangerous. This is why when “the Squad” came to power there was an overwhelming defensive freezing out by figures like Nancy Pelosi and other rank-and-file Democrats. Their victories were seen failures of the party to maintain cohesion. The members seen as intruders or infections to be dealt with. And the desire to maintain control of the party, and more importantly the billionaire donors and corporations that make up their support among the wealth class, was always more important than actually fighting battles to change things for the better. The former, after all, was the much “safer” bet.

[note: this article was published before the election]

Mamdani’s win is also a defeat for the gang of crooked dinosaurs known as the Democratic establishment, which went out of its way to humiliate itself in this race. A parade of elected officials, well-connected unions, and political machers, all of whom had demanded that Cuomo resign the governorship just a few years ago, stampeded shamelessly to get behind him this time around. Cuomo wheeled out endorsements from party grandees like Jim Clyburn and Bill Clinton, neither of whom has any real connection to the city. None of it mattered. Voters looked at this panoply of power and recoiled. Cuomo and his cronies were a symbol of everything ordinary people currently hate about the political class, and they failed. So did the city’s moneyed elite. Billionaires like Mike Bloomberg and Bill Ackman poured tens of millions of dollars into Cuomo’s Super PAC, which drowned New Yorkers in a vast sea of apocalyptic anti-Mamdani propaganda. (Judging by the endless number of Mamdani-bashing mailers I received, there’s a small forest missing somewhere thanks to these bozos.) The New York Times editorial board, which had vowed to stay out of the race, reversed course, warning readers to leave Mamdani off their ballots. They will all be licking their wounds this morning, and that is wonderful. Most importantly, Mamdani’s victory is a seismic defeat for the forces of anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim bigotry. Cuomo and his backers ran one of the most nakedly racist campaigns I can remember seeing, even darkening Mamdani’s beard in one mailer to make him look more like a stereotypical Scary Muslim. And they went all-in on weaponizing his support of Palestine, smearing him relentlessly as an antisemite who would all but send the city’s Jews to the gas chambers. New York’s equally ossified media joined in, framing Mamdani’s opposition to Israel’s apartheid and genocide as “troubling” and peppering him with questions about whether he’d visit Israel as mayor. (Meanwhile, Cuomo’s decision to literally join the legal team fighting to keep Benjamin Netanyahu out of the Hague went completely unaddressed.) And it didn’t work. The voters in one of the Jewish capitals of the world said no. They sent the message that standing up for equal rights and an end to mass slaughter doesn’t make you a danger to the world—it makes you the kind of person who should maybe be the mayor of New York City. That has huge implications for the politics around Palestine and Israel more generally. What more evidence do you need that people don’t want a blank check for Israel than New York City voting for a Muslim, socialist, pro-Palestinian mayor? That is earth-shaking stuff—and, amid the never-ending hell in Gaza, it is a cause for some hope.

[flammabel]

Cal Kestis - Jedi Survivor

🍂🪶❄️?

How colours change the feel of a photo. 💙😊 Pretty Cal surrounded by pretty things.

[dykedvonte]

A crazy thing about Mouthwashing is that Pony Express lost communication with one of its freighters for months and didn’t send anyone to check.

A genuinely reputable company, or at the very least a decent one, would have sent someone, something out to check after about two weeks of silence. Two months is when the crew start questioning if they are even being looked for which implies they were already expecting it to take a while cause P.E just doesn’t care.

They don’t care about who they hire. They don’t care about the conditions they place their crew in or how safe the safety measures actually are. They just don’t care, made rules and regulations so they can care less and succeed in getting away with it with how little those ideas are discussed.

[complainblogforthevoid]

I've finally figured out an argument that convinces coding tech-bros that AI art is bad.

Got into a discussion today (actually a discussion, we were both very reasonable and calm even through I felt like committing violence) with a tech-bro-coded lady who claimed that people use AI in coding all the time so she didn't see why it mattered if people used AI in art.

Obviously I repressed the surge of violence because that would accomplish nothing. Plus, this lady is very articulate, the type who makes claims and you sit there thinking no that's wrong it must be but she said it so well you're kind of just waffling going but, no, wait-- so I knew I had to get this right if I was gonna come out of this unscathed.

The usual arguments about it being about the soul of it and creation fell flat, in fact she was adamant that anyone who believed that was in fact looking down at coding as an art form as she insisted it is. Which, sure, you can totally express yourself through coding. There's a lot more nuance as to the differences but clearly I was not going to win this one.

The other people I was with (literally 8 people anti-ai against her, but you can't change the mind of someone who doesn't want to listen and she just kept accusing us of devaluing coding as an art) took over for I kid you not 15 minutes while I tried desperately to come up with a clear and articulate way to explain the difference to her. They tried so many reasonable arguments, coding being for a function ("what, art doesn't serve a function?") coding being many discrete building blocks that you put together differently, and the AI simply provides the blocks and you put it together yourself ("isn't that what prompt building is") that it's bad for the environment ("but not if it's used for capitalism, hm?" "Yeah literally that's how capitalism works it doesn't care about the environment" she didn't like that response)

But I finally got it.

And the answer is: It's not about what you do, it's about what you claim to be.

Imagine that someone asks an AI to write a code and, by some miracle, it works perfectly without them having to tweak it---which is great because they couldn't tell you what a single solitary thing in that code means.

Now imagine this person, with their code that they don't know how it works, goes and applies to be a coder somewhere, presenting this AI code as proof that they're qualified.

Should they be hired?

She was horrified, of course. Of course they shouldn't be. They're not qualified. They can't actually code, and even if by some miracle they did have an AI successfully write a flawless code for every issue they came across that wouldn't be their code, you could hire any shmuck on the street to do that, no reason to pay someone like they're creating something.

When actual engineers use AI what they do is get some kind of base, which they then go though and check for problems and then if they find any they fix them, and add on to the base code with their own knowledge instead of just trying different prompt after prompt until they randomly come across one that works.

People who generate code like this don't usually call themselves engineers. They're people who needed a bit of code and didn't have the knowledge to generate it, and so used a resource.

And there you go. There are people who have none of the skills of artists, they don't practice, they don't create for themselves. When they feed the prompt to the AI they then don't just use the resulting image as a reference point for their own personal masterpiece, and if they don't like it they don't have the skills to change it---they simply try another prompt, and do that until they get something they like.

These people are calling themselves artists.

Not only that, these people are bringing the AI generated thing to interviews, and they are getting hired, leaving people who slave over their craft out of the job.

And that is the difference, for the tech bros who think AI art isn't a big deal.

[420technoblazeit]

i love making tumblr posts out of something i just said on discord. if i ever dm you a joke and then you see the exact same thing on tumblr worded differently know that i was using you as a test subject. you are a little rat in a sterile environment and i am a lab coated scientist recording your response to the stimuli in isolation, nodding and going I See. quirkier punctuation would elevate the joke beyond its current comedic potential, i think. run the experiment again in a broader environment igor. we must create the Perfect Joke

[mcmansionhell]

we've found it folks: mcmansion heaven

Hello everyone. It is my pleasure to bring you the greatest house I have ever seen. The house of a true visionary. A real ad-hocist. A genuine pioneer of fenestration. This house is in Alabama. It was built in 1980 and costs around $5 million. It is worth every penny. Perhaps more.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Come on, Kate, that's a little kooky, but certainly it's not McMansion Heaven. This is very much a house in the earthly realm. Purgatory. McMansion Purgatory." Well, let me now play Beatrice to your Dante, young Pilgrim. Welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

It is rare to find a house that has everything. A house that wills itself into Postmodernism yet remains unable to let go of the kookiest moments of the prior zeitgeist, the Bruce Goffs and Earthships, the commune houses built from car windshields, the seventies moments of psychedelic hippie fracture. It is everything. It has everything. It is theme park, it is High Tech. It is Renaissance (in the San Antonio Riverwalk sense of the word.) It is medieval. It is maybe the greatest pastiche to sucker itself to the side of a mountain, perilously overlooking a large body of water. Look at it. Just look.

The inside is white. This makes it dreamlike, almost benevolent. It is bright because this is McMansion Heaven and Gray is for McMansion Hell. There is an overbearing sheen of 80s optimism. In this house, the credit default swap has not yet been invented, but could be.

It takes a lot for me to drop the cocaine word because I think it's a cheap joke. But there's something about this example that makes it plausible, not in a derogatory way, but in a liberatory one, a sensuous one. Someone created this house to have a particular experience, a particular feeling. It possesses an element of true fantasy, the thematic. Its rooms are not meant to be one cohesive composition, but rather a series of scenes, of vastly different spatial moments, compressed, expanded, bright, close.

And then there's this kitchen for some reason. Or so you think. Everything the interior design tries to hide, namely how unceasingly peculiar the house is, it is not entirely able to because the choices made here remain decadent, indulgent, albeit in a more familiar way.

Rare is it to discover an interior wherein one truly must wear sunglasses. The environment created in service to transparency has to somewhat prevent the elements from penetrating too deep while retaining their desirable qualities. I don't think an architect designed this house. An architect would have had access to specifically engineered products for this purpose. Whoever built this house had certain access to architectural catalogues but not those used in the highest end or most structurally complex projects. The customization here lies in the assemblage of materials and in doing so stretches them to the height of their imaginative capacity. To borrow from Charles Jencks, ad-hoc is a perfect description. It is an architecture of availability and of adventure.

A small interlude. We are outside. There is no rear exterior view of this house because it would be impossible to get one from the scrawny lawn that lies at its depths. This space is intended to serve the same purpose, which is to look upon the house itself as much as gaze from the house to the world beyond.

Living in a city, I often think about exhibitionism. Living in a city is inherently exhibitionist. A house is a permeable visible surface; it is entirely possible that someone will catch a glimpse of me they're not supposed to when I rush to the living room in only a t-shirt to turn out the light before bed. But this is a space that is only exhibitionist in the sense that it is an architecture of exposure, and yet this exposure would not be possible without the protection of the site, of the distance from every other pair of eyes. In this respect, a double freedom is secured. The window intimates the potential of seeing. But no one sees.

At the heart of this house lies a strange mix of concepts. Postmodern classicist columns of the Disney World set. The unpolished edge of the vernacular. There is also an organicist bent to the whole thing, something more Goff than Gaudí, and here we see some of the house's most organic forms, the monolith- or shell-like vanity mixed with the luminous artifice of mirrors and white. A backlit cave, primitive and performative at the same time, which is, in essence, the dialectic of the luxury bathroom.

And yet our McMansion Heaven is still a McMansion. It is still an accumulation of deliberate signifiers of wealth, very much a construction with the secondary purpose of invoking envy, a palatial residence designed without much cohesion. The presence of golf, of wood, of masculine and patriarchal symbolism with an undercurrent of luxury drives that point home. The McMansion can aspire to an art form, but there are still many levels to ascend before one gets to where God's sitting.

If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.

Not into recurring payments? Try the tip jar! Student loans just started back up!

[maximumzombiecreator]

It's often remarked how D&D 5e's play culture has this sort of disinterest bordering on contempt for actually knowing the rules, often even extending to the DM themselves. I've seen a lot of different ideas for why this is, but one reason I rarely see discussed is that actually, a lot of 5e's rules are not meant to be used.

Encumbrance is a great example of this. 5e contains granular weights for all the items that you might have in your inventory, and rules for how much you can carry based on your strength score, and they've set these carry capacities high enough that you should never actually need to think about them. And that's deliberate, the designers have explicitly said that they've set carrying capacity high enough that it shouldn't come up in normal play. So for a starting DM, you see all these weights, you see all the rules for how much people can carry or drag, and you've played Fallout, you know how this works. And then if you try to actually enforce that, you find that it's insanely tedious, and it basically never actually matters, so you drop it.

Foraging is the example of this that bothers me most. There's a whole system for this! A table of foraging DCs, and math for how much food you can find, and how long you can go without food, etc. But the math is set up so that a person with no survival proficiency and a +0 to WIS, in a hostile environment, will still forage enough food to be fine, and the starvation rules are so generous that even a run of bad luck is unlikely to matter. So a DM who actually tries to use these rules will quickly find that they add nothing but bookkeeping. You're rolling a bunch of checks every day of travel for something that is purpose built not to matter. And that's before you add in all the ways to trivialize or circumvent this.

These rules don't exist to be used, that is not their purpose. These rules exist because the designers were scared of the backlash to 4e, and wanted to make sure that the game had all the rules that D&D "should" have. But they didn't actually want these mechanics. They didn't want the bookkeeping, they didn't care about that style of play, but they couldn't just say, "this game isn't about that" for fear of angering traditionalists. And unfortunately the way they handled this was by putting in rules that are bad, that actively fight anyone who wants to use that style of play and act as a trap to people who take the rules in good faith.

And this means that knowing what rules are not supposed to be used is an actual skill 5e DMs develop. Part of being a good 5e DM is being able to tell the real rules that will improve your game from the fake rules that are there to placate angry forum posters. And that's just an awful position to put DMs in (especially new DMs), but it's pretty unsurprising that it creates a certain contempt for knowing the rules as written.

You should have contempt for some of the rules as written. The designers did.

[r3ynah]

Barbiefied

dcxdp oneshot

Do you know how Barbie herself is such an icon that she works multiple jobs impossible for regular people?

Well, Danny's like that, but less of an icon and more of an eldritch cryptid���no one's that iconic than Barbie herself—he says.

Nevertheless, Danny after living in Amity Park for most of his life, grew bored and Jazz decided that it would do him good to move out for the sake of his mental health. But the only problem is Danny possesses a serious case of a hero complex.

I guess being a vigilante at the age of 14 has finally caught up to him—oh, well

He couldn't risk leaving Amity Park behind fearing that something would happen if he weren't there to act as the city's unloved vigilante later on, the next day Dani had visited him back from one of her journeys, and then an idea hit him.

So here he is now, with at least 100 clones around the world working interesting jobs or just exploring as he stays at Amity Park, his mind working at maximum speed as he devours every single memory made by his clones, Danny's honestly having a great time. He even gained friends from exploring and Regulars from his different Jobs!

Hal Jordan was baffled, it was the fourth time he had seen this boy Danny this week and it was only Tuesday, he was grabbing lunch at Chipotle and he came face to face with the same guy he ordered pizza from yesterday, his gaze never leaving the boy as he paid quietly and directly leaving the establishment, He must've been tired he thought to himself.

'You're just overreacting it's normal for people to have more than two jobs Hal, great that boy must think I'm a creep ' Hal said as he turned to a corner only to bump into someone.

" I'm so sorry, i wasn't looking-" he cut himself off as he faced the person he crashed into, there again was Danny— the same Danny he just saw not even a minute ago.

"It's alright" Danny said sheepishly. "Don't worry about it, I was also paying attention to where i was walking" and then he was out of sight dashed away from a stunned Hal.

"Danny? what are you doing here" Tim asked flabbergasted as he eyed the black haired boy in front of him.

"Oh- Hey Tim, I work here" Danny greeted casually as he pressed the buttons of the cash register in preparation "the usual?" he asked

"Why?" Tim asked confused,

Danny looked at him with a questioning look "Why what?"

"I mean— why are you working here?"

"For money?" Danny said unsure "I don't have enough to pay my bills and college tuition"

"You intern for me! I pay you." Tim stated clearly offended, he had the right to be, he gave money to interns generously, and alongside that Danny had a scholarship that provides allowances so he's pretty sure the boy in front of him is doing fine.

"Hey, inflation's a bitch" Danny shrugged "So the usual?" he asked again

Tim just sighed and nodded, This is just a problem he'll take care of later.

Little did he know, it was also everyone else's problem.

Constantine was rubbing his palms together nervously as he watched Zatanna chant the few words of the spell.

Just the other day Superman used his x-ray vision trying catch an assailant from a robbery who hid from him hiding amongst the jungle of cement buildings that is Metroplis, then he saw it a giant Lazarus pit that was below the Earth's surface hidden from the world that seemed to have a mind of it's own eating everything in its way including the Earth's core just to reach the surface to create havoc, without the core and its mass the planet will become unstable, and with it approaching the surface it'll endanger the people and environment leading to unimaginable catastrophes, so with no time to lose he immediately sought out Batman who then called an emergency meeting where they talked amongst themselves on how to solve this crisis.

And here he was currently surrounded by heroes that just look as nervous as he was.

Why were they nervous? oh it's nothing their just summoning THE HIGH KING PHANTOM OF THE INFINITY REALMS,

That he only just learned about this guys existence from Deadman and secret out of all people when they were asked why they didn't say anything earlier they said they couldn't talk about the realms without the permission of their king, so with enough pressure from their peers, they looked at each other with a hint of fear and uncertainty in their eyes and took the initiative in going to the infinity realms to request from the king himself, when they arrived before the king he only gave them a scroll that once used either successfully or unsuccessfully it will disintegrate leaving nothing behind to ever contact the ruler again, bidding both of the dead heroes goodbye and to send the message on his behalf.

When they returned back from the realm of the dead Deadman's aura was brighter than when they came in, relaying information and the scroll to Batman which he then passed to Zatanna— Constantine had a feeling Batman didn't trust him to lead with this summoning, but to be fair he didn't trust himself either, so yeah, Zatanna it is.

While they prepared the materials, he noticed Nightwing had made his way towards Secret to ask—interrogate— about Phantom, and Secret who also returned from the realms with a little bit of tension out of her shoulders only looked at the Vigilante and uttered the word "merciful" and then she was gone made herself intangible, along with Deadman.

Turning his attention away from the disappointed bird and onto the Summoning circle, he just hoped that this wouldn't backfire on them after all they only had a single chance.

So here they are back at the present, just in time for Zatanna to back away from the summoning circle as it glowed ominously green the same kind of shade that the pits emitted, suspense and nervousness flooded the room as blinding light came out of the circle temporarily making them look away, when the light finally diminished they faced the king.

There stood a very familiar face, standing between the summoning circle, even with the uncanny inverted colors his appearance was alike.

"Danny?!" Flash jumped, making everyone turn to him.

''Hi" Danny waved casually, in his full royal attire that somewhat looked like a very fancy jester's outfit with the hat getting replaced by a crown that floated ominously a few inches above from his head, a cape that seemed to be a piece torn and sewed carefully from space itself tiny meteoroids that moved inside of it, and a ring that stole everyone's attention with how much power it radiated.

"You know Danny?" Superman asked surprised.

"He's my tailor" Flash replied

"You are?" Green Lantern looked at Danny

"I am" Danny confirmed, with a nod

"How do you know him?" Flash questioned Superman back.

"He's my wife's intern, a little strange but he does his job well" Superman exclaimed

"I'm like right here."

"You're his wife's intern??" Robin said accusingly with a tone annoyance laced in his tone

"I am" Phantom replied smugly like working for Lois Lane was the best thing that ever happened to him, which was absolutely correct.

"Don't you work at Batburger?"

"Yep, but I quit, tried retailing instead"

"How about The Aquarium?"

"There too"

"Even the Zoo"

"Uh huh, I did that."

"And I'll assume that you're also the High King Phantom?" Batman interjected, making everyone fall silent and immediately realize once again who was the person standing in front of them,

This kid in front of them was the King of the infinity realms, the most powerful being that ever existed, the one that struck even the Gods with fear so unbearable to carry.

"Damn, did the crown, ring and inverted colors give it out?" Danny grinned cheekily, and for the first time they ever interacted with him, his aloof and unbothered behavior vanished, what replaced it was something more frightening "Shall we begin?" he asked.

Constantine now understood why Secret and Deadman vanished, with the way his presence screamed capability, authority, and power.

This was Phantom, not Danny. And being away from Phantom was mercy itself.

[bookished]

HOW TO GIVE PERSONALITY TO A CHARACTER

Giving personality to a character is an essential part of character development in storytelling, whether you're writing a novel, screenplay, or creating a character for a role-playing game. Here are some steps and considerations to help you give personality to your character:

Understand Their Backstory:

Start by creating a detailed backstory for your character. Where were they born? What were their childhood experiences like? What significant events have shaped their life? Understanding their past can help you determine their motivations, fears, and desires.

2. Define Their Goals and Motivations:

Characters often become more interesting when they have clear goals and motivations. What does your character want? It could be something tangible like a job or a romantic relationship, or it could be an abstract desire like happiness or freedom.

3. Determine Their Strengths and Weaknesses:

No one is perfect, and characters should reflect this. Identify your character's strengths and weaknesses. This can include physical abilities, intellectual skills, and personality traits. Flaws can make characters relatable and three-dimensional.

4. Consider Their Personality Traits:

Think about your character's personality traits. Are they introverted or extroverted? Shy or outgoing? Kind or selfish? Create a list of traits that describe their character. You can use personality frameworks like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Big Five Personality Traits as a starting point.

5. Give Them Quirks and Habits:

Quirks and habits can make a character memorable. Do they have a specific way of speaking, a unique fashion style, or an unusual hobby? These details can help bring your character to life.

6. Explore Their Relationships:

Characters don't exist in isolation. Consider how your character interacts with others. What are their relationships like with family, friends, and enemies? These relationships can reveal a lot about their personality.

7. Show, Don't Tell:

Instead of explicitly telling the audience about your character's personality, show it through their actions, dialogue, and decisions. Let the reader or viewer infer their traits based on their behavior.

8. Create Internal Conflict:

Characters with internal conflicts are often more engaging. What inner struggles does your character face? These can be related to their goals, values, or past experiences.

9. Use Character Arcs:

Consider how your character will change or grow throughout the story. Character development is often about how a character evolves in response to the events and challenges they face.

10. Seek Inspiration:

Draw inspiration from real people, other fictional characters, or even historical figures. Study how people with similar traits and backgrounds behave to inform your character's actions and reactions.

11. Write Dialogue and Inner Monologues:

Writing dialogue and inner monologues from your character's perspective can help you get inside their head and understand their thought processes and emotions.

12. Consider the Setting:

The setting of your story can influence your character's personality. For example, a character who grows up in a war-torn environment may have a different personality than one raised in a peaceful, affluent society.

13. Revise and Refine:

Don't be afraid to revise and refine your character as you write and develop your story. Characters can evolve and change as the narrative unfolds.

Remember that well-developed characters are dynamic and multi-faceted. They should feel like real people with strengths, weaknesses, and complexities. As you write and develop your character, put yourself in their shoes and think about how they would react to various situations. This will help you create a compelling and believable personality for your character.

[brittle-doughie]

I’ll Take You V1 (I’ll Miss You Alt)

Some things are not fated to last, but trying to push closer only makes love farther out of reach. Results can be fatal.

———————————————————————

Five Cookies were baked by the Witches, radiant beings graced with wisdom and power unparalleled. The Five were destined to reshape the tempestuous world and usher in a new age of peace and prosperity for all.

Seeing as how the Five were unlike most Cookies, they could live on for far longer, the Witches have decided to bake one more Cookie. A Cookie that wasn’t as strong or held great power like them, but rather…as a companion for any of the Five to cherish and love dearly.

The love blossomed into something more that could be considered as forever happiness…

———————————————————————

You’ve always looked up to the Fount of Knowledge to know many aspects of this world like the back of his hand! However, all of the knowledge in the world wouldn’t compare to the joys he would have spending time with you!

He likes to spend his time in the Spire of All Knowledge cuddled up next to you as he reads books with you, showing you the many wonders of Earthbread! He always kept the stories interesting with his mannerisms and funny way of speaking, you’re never bored when he reads.

He makes sure to always leave time away from writing in scrolls and books to have moments with you, why would he keep his cutie patootie waiting on him! The texts could wait, snuggling up to you by his tower window was much more preferable to him!

“Man, you always tell such fascinating tales, my fair Fount! It almost makes me feel dull in comparison!”

“Oh, don’t let those little words come out of your mouth again! You are way more fascinating than any of the books I have! I can write whole books on their own on what you’re just oh so great to me!”

“Oh stop, you’re just saying things.”

“Far from it, my little Cookie~ It’s the honest truth~”

The two of you share a laugh as you look out the spire window, leaning on each other…

———————————————————————

The Herald of Change always had that bit of a grumpy side to him when it came to getting him out of his temple to come look at the new civilizations and kingdoms being created everyday.

Everything was the same to him no matter the result, but he could never say no to your requests to visit these civilizations. Your enthusiasm to see what could possibly be different was pretty infectious, encouraging him to go with you in these visits.

He was quite the protective one too, insisting that in return of going with you, you are to stick by his side as you two walked. He makes sure of that by having one of his arms around your waist, he behaves himself but will shoot a glare anyone getting too close.

“Look at that spring the townspeople made, my Herald! Look at the flowers blooming from the water and the creatures that inhabit in and around it, isn’t it wonderful?”

“It’s remarkable, but it’s nothing new to me. I’ve seen many springs like this before, they come and go eventually. Just like the many civilizations we’ve visited today, there’s so much more that I can get done by now!”

“The destination may be the same, but the journey doesn’t have to. It can be different compared to another, so many different ways Cookies behave and act, environment changing with many different plants and creatures. Tell me just one thing that you wouldn’t want to change.”

The Herald, looking down at the ground, slowly formed a smile as he softly laughed, turning his gaze to look at you. One of his arms going around you to hold you close to him.

“I’d say….”

“It would be us that I would never want to change.”

“Aw….”

The two of you hold onto each other close as you both looked on at the lively spring.

———————————————————————

The Seeker of Volition was immensely patient and considerate of you, shaping and changing her realm to make you as comfortable as you can be. She knows things around the Ivory Pagoda may not too interesting or extravagant, but that was alright with you. So long as you were with her.

Her displays of affection were pretty subtle that no Cookie that visited her would’ve suspected that you and her had something close and in a way, it made it more special to her. The gentle hand holding, the way she caressed your cheek as she spoke to you, it was small yet held so much love that she shared with you.

She’s always wondered why you never asked for a wish from her, with how many Cookies that visited her wanting that exact thing. Well, you didn’t really want to wish for anything, the Seeker was enough for you. Being able to stand by her side like this was a wish come true. She didn’t understand your refusal for a wish, but…it touched her that she was enough for you.

“After all the Cookies that have come to me for a wish, I did not think you wouldn’t be one of them. Is there not anything you want wish for?”

“Oh, Seeker. We’ve been through this, ehe. I do not want a wish, I have all that I need here at the Ivory Pagoda. As long as there’s this, I’m happy.”

“You are? After spending all of your time here at the Ivory Pagoda with me, you must have some sort of wish you want granted. Please, say the word. I shall fulfill it to the best of my abilities.”

“Well….”

“Yes?”

“I wish to take a walk around the Pagoda with you. Just the two of us.”

The Seeker was not expecting such a simple and mundane wish, she would’ve seen it as a waste if it came from any other Cookie, but…

To hear it from you…it made giggle softly with a smile.

“Hm…hehe, very well. I shall grant you your wish, my dearest Cookie.”

The two of you hold hands as you leave out the doors to her Pagoda, intending to enjoy a peaceful walk together…

———————————————————————

But could that happiness really last forever?

As time went on, it felt the Cookies you once held dear to you had changed, no longer being the Cookies you once loved. It was as if the power they held was slowly warping their minds and ideals into something more twisted and dark.

“But we both know it’s ever too good to happen.”

———————————————————————

The Fount could never be truly honest with you, always masking his words that tinged with deceit, always making a game of things. Even the books and text he’d were how you remembered…

“Fount, this..isn’t how the story went the last time I’ve heard about it…”

“Oh, that boring ol’ story? I helped myself to make a few changes that really added to the pizzazz of it all, don’t you think?”

“But that never happened! It’s a complete fabrication! Real Cookies have gone through those events, I feel like we shouldn’t tarnish that to make it “interesting.”

“Oh my! I’m hurt! I just wanted to make it more good! Oh well, I’m sure those Cookies wouldn’t mind, right? Come on, let’s read another, shall we?”

“N-no, I don’t want to read another. I’ll just..be in my room.”

“Hey! Where you going?! I swear the details on the next one are accurate! Mostly! Maybe!”

———————————————————————

The Herald never could see how you see the many locations and civilizations you two see, always groaning and muttering that it was boring to him. It had gotten to the point where he ignored you and remain sat on his seat in the temple.

“What do you mean you’re not going?”

“I mean it. You say that all these places would be different in their own ways, but it’s all been the same! It bores me when I have to go through the same thing over and over again!”

“I-I promise that I’ll keep your interest piqued with this one-“

“NO!”

He destroyed a nearby table with a single hit.

“You can go on without me from now on. I have no reason to endure something so boring as another town visit…”

“R-right, okay, I’ll just…go.”

You hastily leave as the Herald looked at his fist that broke the table, he realized something as a large grin on his face formed…

“That…felt good….”

———————————————————————

The Seeker didn’t feel like herself anymore with the coldness and apathy she now radiated. She didn’t push you away when trying to be close like old times, but she didn’t really reciprocate your affections like she would back then. It felt like..she didn’t love you all that much anymore.

“Where you going?”

“I must return to the Ivory Pagoda in order to continue my pursuit of becoming a Leavened One.”

“I know this Leavened One status is important to you, but…wouldn’t that mean I won’t get to see you much anymore. I can’t bear that…”

“Oh, Y/N Cookie…”

She caressed your cheek, but it didn’t feel right. There was no sense of love placed into it, as if she only did it to calm you down by reminding you of the past.

“You should know that I hold this opportunity dear to me, but it does not mean I value you any less, it is meaningless to worry. I must go.”

“What about my wish to spend the day together…?”

“You should also know that not every basic wish will be granted. I am sorry…”

———————————————————————

Regardless, it felt like you were kicked to the curb as you walked outside during the night.

You were not happy. You look up at the sky, wondering if your Creator was looking down at you too.

You ask them how could things go so wrong. What purpose could you have now that the Cookies you were made for weren’t themselves anymore? Were they even the same Cookies at this rate?

You ask…what could you do…?

…

…

…

You look down, only now noticing a nearly invisible string flowing in the air, red in color as it looked like it came from your chest. You reached up to hold it and in doing so, the string was seemingly cut and it floats away into the sky…

That…oddly felt liberating. You looked at your hands and realized that..you did have meaning outside of your purpose. There was a whole world out there that you could now explore! Many things to see and Cookies to meet!

You felt rejuvenated and head off to rest for tonight. Tomorrow, you’ll be a new Cookie!

Surely, the “Virtues” wouldn’t mind if you were gone for a little while, right?

…

…

…

…

But you weren’t the only one who felt a change after that string was cut…

The spire trembled.

The temple shook.

The cocoon violently spasmed.

Their occupants having felt the full effects…

The Fount suddenly tore the book they were “changing” as he keeled over, clutching his chest where his heart was…he felt…empty.

The Herald started a rampage in his temple, the pain in his chest fueling his anger and muddied despair as he destroyed everything…he felt…lost.

The Seeker, once settled in her cocoon, was now clutching her head with both her hands as she lets out silent screams of anguish, the pain in her chest amidst a void of white too great to ignore…she felt…voided.

One by one, they fall….

They’d find you, and they’ll take you….

———————————————————————

You were just about to carry on in your boat out of the continent when a sheep wandered to you.

“Oh hello, little sheep. You lost your way from your herd?”

“Baaaaa….”

“Why are you looking down? Come on, look at me…”

The sheep suddenly jolted up to look you, it looked furious as it’s eyes glowed shades of blue.

“BAAAAAA!”

“What?!”

The sheep poofed into blue smoke, and in its place was now a very angry Cookie.

“My Fount?!”

“ERRR! WRONG! Now let me ask you a question. WHY DID YOU LEAVE?!”

Shadow Milk Cookie had found you right as you were about to leave Beast-Yeast.

“I’m sorry, my Fount. But…I can’t do this anymore. You are no longer the Cookie I know and loved. You lie to me, you twist things so badly, I can’t even tell what’s true and what’s not.”

“I do not lie to you! I never could! You weren’t supposed to leave me behind! You were supposed to stick to me like glue for as long as the two of us lived!”

“We all change, Fount. That includes you and me.”

“Is that it?! Are you just going to walk away from EONS worth of our time together all for my new change of style?!”

“You are NOT going anywhere! You are coming back with me to that Spire and we are going to adore and be mushy to each other like always!”

“I’m going, Fount. I’ve made my decision…”

“Oh…hehe….ehehehe~!”

“What? What are you laughing for-“

Your movements are stopped, you are horrified to see blue strings wrapped tightly around your arm. You try to free yourself, but you found that all your limbs were wrapped in strings too. You pulled into his arms as he giggled menacingly to you, a shadow over his eyes.

“Oh, you silly little thing~ I never would’ve expected you to lie to ME! My brand new style doesn’t mean my heart went out the window! If you can’t accept how deceit seeps into the very cracks of this world, then…”

He leans in real close to your face, whispering in a chilling voice…

“I’ll just have to take you, cutie~ Ehehehe~”

You were never seen again…

———————————————————————

You were having a peaceful time in the civilization you were staying at, enjoying a nice meal provided by the locals when…

“AAAAAH! Run for your lives!”

“He’s destroying everything in his path, watch out!”

“ARGH! It hurts!”

The screams of Cookies in the distance alerted you to turn around from where you were sitting to see Cookies running away from something.

And their screams weren’t the only ones you were hearing.

“COME OUT TO ME, LITTLE COOKIE! I KNOW YOU’RE HERE SOMEWHERE!”

The Herald(?!) shouted in anger as he was breaking and bashing through anything in his path up ahead.

Cookies that were in his way were simply hit back with enough force to send them into walls or sliding back on the ground, he didn’t give them any time to move.

“Ah! Please! Show mercy!”

“Mercy?! There IS no mercy for you WORMS!”

The Cookie on the ground from an earlier attack tried to get up, but groaned in pain as Burning Spice Cookie slowly raised his weapon, the Cookie covers their face to brace for impact.

“STOP!”

Burning Spice Cookie immediately stops to look in the direction of your shout and locking eyes with you, he heads for you.

“Please, don’t hurt any more Cookies!”

“So…you’ve been here all along, spending time amidst these ANTS! The tide of Change will sweep through all, leaving everyone here as nothing but dust in the wind!”

“Have you NO IDEA how long I’ve looked for to find you when you didn’t come back the temple?!”

“To not see you by my side for DAYS?!”

“I know you’re mad, but please, you don’t have to do this! I’ll..I’ll come back with you…”

“Will you now…? I must be sure!”

“What are you-“

Your talk was stopped when he grips your shoulders and brought you to a rough kiss that left you coughing spice when he pulled away.

“Hahaha! Yes! I remember this feeling now! I expect you to stay in the temple with me, for as long as we live! I promise not to break you too easily, ahahaha!”

You felt conflicted as you were dragged with him back to the temple. He’d never let you go as easily again…

———————————————————————

You say farewell to a close friend of yours as you head inside your home. You were ready to turn in for the night as you offed the lights, it was particularly foggy tonight, so you chose to keep things closed up before you turned in for tonight.

You close your eyes and drift off to sleep..or at least, you tried to before you hear a slight creak in your room. You sit up and look, only to see a pair of slit pupils staring right back at you in the darkness in the room.

Neither of you move….

…

…

…

“I may give nothing for your loyalty, but to see you offer your mind and soul to another, right after I had been free from my cocoon…you will learn that it was pointless to try and leave me…”

“My Seeker?!”

She barely gives you time to let the realization sink in before she rushed forward to hold your cheeks in her hands, lifting you up effortlessly to bring you face to face with her as she looks down at you. Her eyes wide open and pitch black, her slit pupils bearing down on yours.

She was as expressionless as ever, but her eyes told you everything you needed to know that she was mad. You felt weak, dough turning pale..

“I never forgot our bond, the years upon years that we shared…my rise to the Leavened One should not have been a path I walked alone…”

“Why are you saying..?”

“I should’ve shared my feelings with you, to show you that everything will be futile in the end. Just like your intentions to leave me as just a thought…”

“No, you don’t have to…”

“THIS is my wish. To have you see what I see, to feel how I feel. About everything, about you…”

“No, please…”

“I promise…I promise to not have us walk alone anymore…”

Everything was a blur as she took you away from your home, up the stairs; and back to the Ivory Pagoda. The last of the outside world forever a distant memory as the cocoon wrapped up once more, Mystic Flour clutching you close to her body.

Together in a world of white, that is what she always wished for…

———————————————————————

“I loved you

Even though I loved you

I’ll treat you like this

Like the traitor you are

Return my feelings

I loved you

Even though I loved you

Forever”

———————————————————————

[ilovecatfr]

become aware of you dr

how?

A lot of people become frustrated and questioned "how? how? how?" And without a clear explanation it can be maddening because how do you become aware of you DR? While there's isn't one completely clear answer, we can still try to explain it.

Let’s talk about awareness specifically, what it means to become aware of your DR.

By definition awareness is the act of perceiving or knowing something whether it’s a physical object, a feeling, or an entire reality. When you perceive something the ability to see, hear, or become conscious of something.

Most of the time, we become aware of things by seeing them. But here’s the thing; You "see" with both your eyes and your brain.

Light enters your eyes, hitting the retina which then specialized cells called photoreceptors in the retina turn the light into electrical signals which your brain (specifically, the occipital lobe) then receives and makes imagines that you see "through" your eyes.

So why does this matter like at all? Because your brain doesn’t need your physical eyes to create reality. Your brain can make mental imaginary which actives the same occipital lobe that your brain uses when you see things with your eyes.

If your brain can make a reality from mental imagery alone, then shifting is just a matter of redirecting your awareness to a new set of sensory inputs, your DR’s.

So how the fuck does this work with shifting?

Realization; the moment you decide to shift, you’re realizing your DR.

Perception; Visualization sometimes isn’t just "seeing" your DR - it can be activating your brain’s ability to process it as real.

You can add sensory details: the weight of your DR clothes, the smell of the air, the sound of voices around you. The more layers you add, the more your brain can accept it as a true environment.

Knowledge; acknowledge that you are in this moment in your Dr. No ifs or buts.

In your DR, your brain does the exact same thing it does here, it processes sensory input to create your experience.

When you shift, your brain interprets your DR surroundings just as vividly as your CR because to your mind, it’s just as real and it doesn't really know the difference.

Your brain can't disprove your visualization or affirmations, it doesn't have eyes to see but simply electric singles that you can control with your thoughts.

The simple truth is you don’t need to learn how to be aware in your DR. You’re already aware, you just need to stop convincing yourself you’re not. So please drop the "how" and just accept that you are...

[elysiansparadise]

Stelliums in the houses of the natal chart

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

People with this stellium have a strong need to find and define their personality. They are in a constant search for ways to know themselves. They have a strong, charismatic and authentic way of expressing themselves. They stay true to themselves and are very honest when they don't like something or someone. They are endowed with great assertiveness, initiative and a need to be constantly active. For them, doing things on their own is very important, they greatly respect their individuality and personal space. They like to find their own meanings, forge their own beliefs and criteria, and think for themselves. They do not like to interfere in the lives of others and prefer to focus on their own. They have clear priorities and do not allow others to control their lives. They tend to have a strong presence and give the impression of being very dominant and go-getters. They are very self-aware and are the first to analyze or judge themselves.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟐𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

They focus on creating or maintaining stability in their lives. They devote themselves to have everything they want and need, making sure they lack nothing. They are people who fervently protect everything they consider theirs. They focus on getting money to have access to a greater number of things. They always prefer comfort and look after theirs. Strong values ​​and easily reject what goes against them. Values ​​such as loyalty, responsibility and tolerance are of great and special importance for them. They believe more in actions than words. They are persistent when it comes to doing something they feel is worthwhile. Security is important to them, especially in the area of ​​their relationships. They may dislike changes that are too abrupt. They give the impression of being trustworthy, graceful and calm. Others may also recognize them as people who are difficult to change their minds (stubborn or strongly opinionated).

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟑𝐫𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

When we have this stellium, our mind is restless and we are in search of mental stimulation. These natives like to investigate different topics and can research them until they learn everything they can. Very curious, inquisitive and quick-thinking, they tend to understand concepts quickly. They stand out for their wittiness, sense of humor and ability to multitask. Anxious tendencies and are prone to overthinking things. Great communication skills, whether written or oral. They are always feeding their minds with knowledge on things that catch their attention. The relationship with siblings or cousins ​​can be very significant. They are likely to take many short trips throughout their lives. They may have a wide repertoire of knowledge and skills that they learned on their own. They like to understand and know what is happening around them. They adapt very quickly to their environments and the people they interact with.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟒𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

There is a great focus on looking within us. Great importance to creating self-awareness and knowing our emotions well. Constant search for comfort, ease, coziness and a feeling of security. Desire to create a home in which they can feel safe and happy. Strong connection with your past. They may enjoy researching about their ancestors and/or their family member’s past. Reserved and introspective. Deeply emotional, they feel their emotions intensely. The family atmosphere could have been very active. They like their privacy. Many aspects of their personality are reserved for people who are truly close to them. They tend to make people feel comfortable. They give the impression of being, although mysterious, polite and gentle. These people will always prefer to create bonds with a strong and deep emotional connection. For them, 'family' is the people who genuinely know them and accept and love them as they are.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟓𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

Strong sense of identity and a great desire to be authentic. They want to feel proud of themselves. They can be seen as very talented and skilled at many different things. A need to develop their skills. Ease of attracting attention. Great appeal and power of attraction. A desire to develop your creativity. They seek their pleasure, fun and joy. They are very romantic people and when they fall in love, they focus a lot on their relationships and their special person, as they become one of the top priorities on their lists. They will avoid people or situations that make them feel bad about being themselves. They have high standards and do not hesitate to discard what does not serve them. Need to express oneself transparently and without filters. They can be seen as self-centered and as people who, although attractive, are initially inaccessible. If you decide to be parents, your children will be your priority, you will love and care for them with dedication and affection.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟔𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

Strong focus on preserving, achieving and maintaining well-being. They seek their mental and emotional peace. Productive people who seem busy or have something in progress. They seek to be guided by logic and reason. Perfectionist tendencies. They can deal with anxiety. They set very high standards for themselves and can be impatient with themselves when making mistakes. Great eye for detail and analysis of any kind. They can easily connect with animals and/or make them feel very comfortable in their presence. Great work ethic, because they are responsible and know how to get the things done. They give a lot of importance to their health and take care of it. They don't like unpredictability. They can stand out in any branch in which they decide to work. Great communicators, they go straight to the point. They have clear priorities. They move away from what doesn't make them feel good or what disturbs them.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟕𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

These people stand out for being very committed and firm when it comes to their relationships. They prefer long-term relationships and focus on forming lasting connections. They feel a need for balance between their individuality and their relationship. In this life you will be able to get married and have a marriage that will benefit you. Ease of working as a team. Ability to understand others easily and make others feel comfortable. They look for genuineness in their relationships. They are very clear about what they want and look for in a relationship. They attract authentic people with a lot of self-confidence. A deep desire to connect deeply with your future spouse. They tend to attract partners who help them discover many things about themselves. In return, natives help their partners define their priorities and personalities. They always seek to do the right thing. They are the embodiment of the phrase 'treat others how you would like to be treated'.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟖𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

Strong need for introspection, to see beyond what we notice with the naked eye. People with a rich inner world, full of nuances. They seek to get to the bottom of things. They have a strong intuition. Great inner strength. They come back strong from all kinds of critical situations. They seek and desire to connect on a deep level on a sexual level, they do not take it lightly. Intense internal processes. They can experience great changes throughout their lives. Attraction to power and the feeling of strength. The 'dark' or complex side of life is something that does not bother them, and many of them are on a path of acceptance towards this shadow self that they feel resides within them. Power and ability to transform the situations around you or the vision that others have about others. You can have a 'tower effect' on others (for those who are not familiar with tarot, I mean that you can collapse schemes, ideologies, or what is established, whether on a small or large scale, you have the power to make drastic changes in others & their lives).

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟗𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

Natives with this stellium constantly seek a deeper meaning to things. They can seek to follow your own philosophy, create their own opinions and form their own criteria. They like to feel free to do what they like, know a lot about the things that catch their attention and satisfy their curiosity without feeling restricted. Interest and love for other cultures. An interest or taste for travel is also very likely. They can put a lot of emphasis on their spiritual growth and following their own beliefs. They can be dreamers and constantly think about all the things they want to achieve. Interest and/or skills to manifest. An approach and desire to be different from the stereotypes of the people around them, that is, not to be like their family, people their age or friends. Ambivert tendencies. Search for justice and annoyance at people without integrity or values. A strong inclination to do the right thing. They may want to live in another country and they can easily achieve it.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟎𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

Here we find natives who put a great focus on achieving success. Strong need for achievement and to feel proud of themselves. Ambitious, with clear priorities and a non-conformist personality. High standards in themselves and other aspects of their life. Ease of achieving success and recognition. Focused on long-term plans, they do not waste time with the ephemeral and unreliable. They care a lot about their reputation and public image. They exude power, self-confidence and assertiveness, they can even give off dominant vibes. A lot of focus on their work, they seek to progress and have better things. It is likely that throughout their lives people will talk a lot about them. They know their worth and do not accept the minimum. It is necessary for these natives to find a balance between work and other areas of life and for them to acknowledge that they don’t need to achieve things in order to deserve things. 

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟏𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

Natives with many aspirations, desires and plans for the future. Their mind is planted in the future, which can cause them to think about it excessively. Anxious tendencies. Worry about what awaits them. They are people who deeply value friendship and seek to give this title only to those who truly deserve it. Loyal and constant friends. Strong ambition. They may have wanted to fit in with their youth. The older they get, the more they try to separate themselves from the search for acceptance. Need to differentiate themselves from their environment, to be themselves authentically and fight their own battles. They do not hesitate to express their points of view and are clear when they do not agree with something. Feeling of not fitting in easily. They prefer to be alone rather than pretend to be something they are not. They can experience major radical changes throughout their lives. They learn that holding on is not right or healthy for them. Struggle relying on others.

𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟐𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

There is a strong yearning to delve deeply for these natives, to not stay with what is obvious, tangible and mundane, to find a deeper meaning to what surrounds them... to themselves. Search for purpose and what makes your soul free. Feeling of not being able to fit in with everyone. Deeply emotional people and in touch with their emotions. Search for one's own healing. Feeling of constantly facing fears and triggers. Strong empathy and intuition. Be the mirror of the people you interact with. Rich inner world and they often seek to understand themselves on a deep level, to know themselves as much as they can. Desire to connect on a raw level with someone, as if they were baring their souls to the other. Tendency to isolate and/or feel alone even with people around. Spiritual sensitivity and deep creativity. Feeling of not having been seen and a motivation not to make those who appreciate you feel that way.

[prettieinpink]

HOW TO GET OUT OF A READING SLUMP

Inspired by how I'm currently trying to read again. 

START SHORTER. Try to read something manageable for you, and it doesn’t have to even be a full novel. It could be an essay on something that interests you or any short stories you find. Get into the habit of reading at your own pace, till you feel ready to take on something bigger. 

SET REALISTIC GOALS. Instead of wanting a goal like completing a book within a week, I would say 20 minutes of reading per day or at least 2 hours per week. You don’t have to track the time when you’re reading, but make mental notes of when you start reading and how long you read. 

EXPLORE. You may even be tired of reading certain genres, and not notice it. While in a slump, I would explore different books and see what interests me the most. For example, if you love reading romance books, try some action ones instead(or vice versa.)

REREAD FAVES. The familiarity of some books can help us get back into the swing of reading. Every time I reread a book, I always pick up on new details that I didn’t notice before. Reread one of your favourite books and try to spot details that you didn’t spot before. 

MAKE A LIST. Create a list of all the books that you want to read or reread. I feel like the process of seeing all the books you could, really encourages you to pick up that book. 

TRY A DIFFERENT FORMAT. For a lot of us, reading paperback or hard copy is the way to go. However, when I’m in a slump, I feel like opting for a different format helps me to get back into reading. For example, a digital book, or an e-book. (or vice versa)

READ IN A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT. I love LOVE, reading in an actual library. It is not for everyone, but a change of scenery can help. Some ideas can be at a park, a cafe, beaches and or a nature trail. 

PAIR READING WITH ANOTHER ACTIVITY. Some examples are exercising, cooking, travelling/commuting or doing mindfulness activities. This is more for getting back into the habit, once you’ve got it again, I would say to focus only on reading. 

[hearthmistress]

i'm sure this has been articulated before and probably better, but i can't stop thinking about the fact that the main reason buddie fans hate Tommy (outside from the fact he is blocking their ship from becoming "canon") is because Tommy is getting the Eddie storyline they want. Or rather, the fandom idea of Eddie is being played out with Tommy's character arc.

This really clicked with me after I watched a nearly 4hr 9-1-1 recap youtube video created by a buddie fan. I genuinely think (the buddie of it all and their view of Tommy aside) it's a great video and worth a watch! Really articulates what makes 9-1-1 fun and lovable, the issues the show has (especially with copaganda), the bad writing with certain characters and character plot arcs, and genuinely had a lot of points I agree with/have been saying myself since I started watching 9-1-1. Even the buddie of it all, I could get on board with because I like watching people argue why they ship something - I don't have to agree with it or like the ship to be interested.

My main issue with the video (and why I can't stop thinking about it) is how the creator viewed Tommy and how (perhaps purposefully) bad-faith they have interpreted his actions towards Buck. Again, I don't care if someone doesn't like Tommy or has no strong opinions of him, but I prefer people's dislike to be based on reality and/or what the character actually did, and not through the rose-coloured glasses of a shipper lens.

When the creator of the video brought up Tommy as Buck's love interest, they mostly said they were rather cool on him and that we don't know a lot about him yet to really know the character (and given that this was published before S8, that's fair). However, they bring up the cafe scene in S7E05 and Tommy's "mmmm, not like that" line as "evidence" that Tommy's indifferent to Buck and this is where buddies and general audiences separate into different realities, because this moment is a) clearly supposed to be funny/romcomsque and b) demonstrates Tommy's dry wit and, dare i say, sassiness - a trait applauded by buddie fans with Eddie (and they use as proof as his "queerness") but condemned when a canonically gay character does it. The video creator themselves mentions numerous times Eddie's sassiness as a positive trait (and to be fair, they also mention that it's sort of Eddie's default trait because he's a nothingburger character - which I agree with), but when Tommy does it, it suddenly demonstrates that a character doesn't really like/care for their love interests (which given what we know about S8.... hilarious in hindsight, holy projection batman).

Anyways, that really clicked into place for me that the (outsized) outrage buddies have towards Tommy is because he is canonically demonstrating traits they want to see in Eddie/how they view (fandom) Eddie.

Tommy as a character is:

-a deeply closeted gay man when we first meet him, who participates in toxic masculinity as a means to protect himself and/or because he can't (or is unable to) fully articulate himself as a queer person.

-alluded to have been raised in an environment where he had to hide his queerness (as discussed specifically in S7E10 with 118 being a "regressive place" when he was there). Is pressured by both his biological family and his work "family" to maintain a certain idea of manhood, and by extension, stay closeted. Also served in the army, an institute infamous for being homophobic, and undoubtedly influenced his ideas around duty and manhood.

-unable to maintain relationships with women, even serious long-term ones as with Abby, and uses these relationships (either subconsciously or not) to maintain the illusion of his heterosexuality.

-tied with "traditional" masculine interests/hobbies/institutes. He was in the army, he likes monster trucks, fighting, craft beer, flies a helicopter, etc. He seems, on the surface, a guy's guy.

-now canonically out and was/is in a relationship with Buck and has served, vitally, as a closet key to Buck, ensuring that two firefighters on the silly weewoo show are, in fact, together.

-very clearly invested in Buck's well-being, both within and outside of relationship. Has demonstrated numerous times "going out" of his way to put Buck's emotional needs first and to value Buck in way others (Eddie) do not.

-one half of a groundbreaking queer relationship. Cannot be repeated enough, the fact that the show has a main character (beloved by fandom and the general audience alike) come out as queer in a long-running mainstream show is groundbreaking. The fact that Tommy is one half of this ship is so important both to the show and Buck's entire arc. It is important and groundbreaking.

These are almost all things/traits that buddie fans argue make Eddie queer and/or why buddie would be a groundbreaking ship. Which sure, but the reality is the showrunners, the actors, the show itself have maintained Eddie is straight, and (as articulated by the creator themselves in the video) most of what they project onto Eddie comes from the fact he is poorly written rather than because the show was planning on making Eddie gay in the first place.

I read through numerous comments for the recap video and for a following video from the same creator about whether they had been queerbaited (I wish buddies learned the term "ship-tease" because if one half of your ship is canonically queer, no you cannot be queerbaited and dismissing Buck's canonical queerness just because your ship is not happening is, uh, a problem), and numerous times buddies have mentioned how "groundbreaking" buddie would be as if all the things they mention about the ship hasn't already happened with Bucktommy on the show. Their issue is not that the show refuses to do this (and the amount of comments I read that said things like 'they'll never make buddie happen because the network is too conservative'.... for a show with a black lesbian relationship from season 1 and has already made half of your ship queer and made him fuck nasty on screen with his male love interest.... the mental gymnastics is too much), but the fact that the show HAS already done this, just not with their blorbo of choice.

My closing thoughts (for now, I have MANY!) is that in the follow up video about being "queerbaited by 9-1-1", numerous comments asked "if Eddie isn't gay, that would mean he's just emotionally immature, terrible to women, and not a great friend or parent. He would be the worst character on the show".... and like yes, that's the real character you are choosing to stan, not the fanfic one! I fully understand that Eddie is blank canvas for most buddies to pin their hopes and dreams onto (again, because he is poorly written and is essentially a nothingburger character), but no matter how you twist each bucktommy interaction, make bad-faith interpretations, project things that never happened onto Tommy, in the end, Eddie is still a straight boring character. And Tommy is the one who is canonically living out the character-arc you so desperately want to see on the show.

[cognitivejustice]

Firstly, the researchers removed the phones’ batteries and replaced them with external power sources to reduce the risk of chemical leakage into the environment, a ScienceDaily report explains. 

Then, four phones were connected together, fitted with 3D-printed casings and holders, and turned into a working prototype ready to be reused.

“Innovation often begins not with something new, but with a new way of thinking about the old, re-imagining its role in shaping the future,” says Huber Flores, Associate Professor of Pervasive Computing at the University of Tartu in Estonia.  

The prototype created by researchers was put to use underwater, where it participated in the monitoring of marine life by helping to count different sea species. 

Normally, these kinds of tasks require a scuba diver to record video and bring it to the surface for analysis. The prototype meant the whole process could be done automatically underwater.

And there are many other ways that a phone’s capacity to efficiently process and store data can be put to good use after its WhatsApping days are done.

These mini data centres could also be used at bus stops, for example, to collect real-time data on the number of passengers. This could help to optimise public transportation networks.

Such smartphone repurposing is just a drop in the ocean of issues that natural resource mining, energy-intensive production and e-waste present. Ultimately, we need to challenge this throwaway culture and move to a more circular model.